Getting tired of zombies? Then why not give pirates some lovin’? Snowbird Games, creators of Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword, have announced Caribbean, a 17th-century swashbuckling take on the M&B series. Sea battles, boarding fights, duels, political intrigue… don’t you want to embark on a pirate adventure?

Features:

Sea battles with intuitive and easy control system;

The real-time boarding fights that throw player in the centre of the action;

Detailed management and customization of both the fleet and the crew;

Complex siege system allowing the players to storm forts, harbors or entire cities;

Different kinds of artillery: shipboard cannons, mortars and howitzers;

Random events system that keeps players question their decisions during their voyage;

True ‘Carribean’ atmosphere of the vast and dangerous world;

Unique NPCs whose design based on the real historical figures;

Various multiplayer modes featuring the sea and land battles, boarding and sieges.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/caribbean-announced-mount-blade-with-pirates/feed/050% Off Paradox Titles Until July 31http://www.gamefront.com/50-off-paradox-titles-until-july-31/
http://www.gamefront.com/50-off-paradox-titles-until-july-31/#commentsMon, 25 Jul 2011 20:40:28 +0000CJ Miozzihttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=112743Over 100 indie titles practically being given away -- take advantage of this offer while it lasts.

Steam isn’t your only venue for hot summer sales. Until July 31, you can buy Paradox titles for half price through GamersGate, Impulse, Amazon, and many other online retailers. That’s a huge discount on over 100 indie titles, including Magicka, Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame, Cities in Motion, and many others. The only exceptions in the sale are the recently released Supreme Ruler: Cold War and the Hearts of Iron III expansion, For the Motherland.

Indie games aren’t that expensive to begin with, so you now have no excuse for not trying out some of the hit games Paradox has released. We reviewed Mount & Blade and liked it, and $7.50 is a hard price to argue with.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/new-mount-blade-patches-warband-with-fire-sword/feed/0Win a Copy of Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword! (GIVEAWAY)http://www.gamefront.com/win-a-copy-of-mount-blade-with-fire-and-sword/
http://www.gamefront.com/win-a-copy-of-mount-blade-with-fire-and-sword/#commentsMon, 11 Jul 2011 21:19:24 +0000Ron Whitakerhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=109502Just tell us what YOU want to see in your PC gaming coverage.

In case you didn’t read the announcement, we’re going back to our roots and enhancing our PC gaming coverage. In celebration of this, we’re going to give away some PC games!

The Mount & Blade series is one that every PC gamer should play. It’s an RPG set in a historically realistic 17th century, and it’s actually quite fun. Back at the end of May, we reviewed Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, and today we’re giving away 5 copies of the game on Steam.

All you need to do to get a chance to win a copy is to add a comment below telling us exactly what you’d like to see us covering now that we’re focusing on PC gaming. We’ll be drawing five random winners from all the entries. A couple of rules:

- You must leave a comment with a valid email address.

- You must post your comment before 11:59 PM this Thursday, July 14.

That’s all there is to it. Tell us what you want to see, and we’ll reward five of you with a brand new game to play!

When I think RPG, the first thing that springs to mind is spellcasting. Dragons, elves, comically oversized weapons and armor — they’re all par for the course. Over the past ten years, fantasy has just become less… fantastic.

So it’s more than a little ironic that a game depicting a historically accurate 17th century is more unique than the dozens of titles that sprinkle their fictional worlds with magic fairy dust.

With Fire & Sword, which I had the opportunity to preview before release, is the second standalone expansion to the action RPG, Mount & Blade. Players take on the role of a mercenary that works his way up from humble beginnings to become a fearsome warlord renown throughout the land.

The game’s plot is based on the historical novel With Fire and Sword, written by Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz and published in 1884 — it’s fair to assume the game’s indie developer didn’t buy the rights to the novel; it must fall under public domain. The game revolves around five factions vying for control of Eastern Europe: the Crimean Khanate, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Cossack Hetmanate, the Polish Republic, and the Muscovite Tsardom.

Grounding this expansion in a historical setting is a welcome departure from the fictional world created in the original — if there are no fantasy elements, there’s no need to jumble letters together to generate city names. Conquering Moscow is much more satisfying than conquering Imaginaria.

But the first step in your journey to conquering Eastern Europe is character creation. An impressive — if not overwhelming — array of appearance customizations allows you to generate any number of ugly renaissance men. The wealth of customization options is appreciated; don’t get me wrong — I suppose I just didn’t realize how badly a lack of proper hygiene and grooming ravaged the face. And when I said renaissance men, I meant just that — men. You cannot create a female character in the singleplayer campaign, which I would presume is for historical accuracy and not downright sexism if not for a certain Saint named Joan of Arc.

Hideous male character created, you move on to allotting points into abilities like strength and intelligence, as well as weapon proficiencies and general skills. Once again, With Fire & Sword doesn’t skimp on the customization. Your character can specialize in trade, diplomacy, archery, or any combination of a couple dozen fields. A new player can be easily intimidated by the sheer number of choices to make, and no direction is provided regarding how players should be spreading out their points. The issue is compounded by the clunky user interface, which will continue to rear its ugly head throughout the game. Improvements to the menu’s visuals have been made since the preview, but patchwork won’t suffice — a complete overhaul is in order.

After crossing your fingers in the hopes that your character doesn’t turn out underpowered, you load into the game world and play through a tutorial that explains the combat mechanics — but little else. With the tutorial completed, you are tossed into the world, with only a hint at where to go for your first quest. How many soldiers should I buy? What army size can I safely face in battle? How far from this area should I travel? I had to remake a new character a couple times and listen to some advice from Mount & Blade veterans before I realized how I “should” be playing the game.

Once you’ve trialed and erred your way into getting the hang of the game, you have the option of following the plotline quests and eventually allying yourself with one of the five factions, or you can flip the plot the finger and have fun raiding, pillaging, and trading sandbox-style. The plot doesn’t impose itself on you, thankfully, because reading the text-heavy conversation menus becomes tedious — I hope full voice acting will be included in any future iteration of Mount & Blade. The game’s sandbox nature alleviates this tedium, however, allowing you to progress through the storyline at your own pace.

While this freeform play style is one of Mount & Blade’s greatest strengths, allowing you to decide what activities you do and do not wish to partake in, ultimately, you are shoehorned into trading goods or embarking on insipid delivery quests if you wish to earn money at a reasonable rate. I hoped that combat alone could earn me the funds I needed to raise an army, but when a single trade run grossed more money than an entire evening of battles, I realized I’d have to bite the bullet.

Which brings us to the biggest innovation of this second expansion: the titular “fire.” Gunpowder weapons make their debut, from flintlock pistols and muskets to early grenades. Though certainly a strong selling point, whether firearms actually add to the game or not is up for debate. They most definitely change combat, making it more tactical and less heroic. Valiantly charging ahead of your army on your trusty steed becomes a death sentence once you’re up against a firing squad.

Guns also introduce a powerful random element to combat — a single bullet can kill you, but their aim is remarkably inaccurate at distances beyond ten feet. Battles become a game of Russian–err, Muscovite Roulette anytime large numbers of musketeers are involved.

In the hands of a player, guns seem to be a suboptimal choice. Combine their awful aim with their reload time of 5-6 seconds and you’ll only be able to take down a single soldier from an advancing army before it’s upon you. Arm a couple dozen of your troops with muskets and these boomsticks begin to shine; otherwise, the trusty bow should is the skilled player’s ranged weapon of choice.

Though arrows deal less damage than bullets, bows are more accurate, fire at machine-gun rates relative to muskets, and once enough skill points have been sunk into specializing in archery, they become once-shot killers like their gunpowder counterparts.

While it’s difficult enough to hit a stationary target with a gun, it’s monumentally more difficult to hit a target jumping and shuffling left and right while compensating for lag and firing at a rate of one bullet per six seconds. But that doesn’t detract from the fun of With Fire & Sword’s multiplayer modes in the slightest — in fact, it helps reduce the frustrating one-shot deaths.

In multiplayer, each match is its own self-contained entity. Your character doesn’t level up, but as you gain kills, you earn money, which you can spend on better weapons, armor, horses, or, if applicable, troops. The Captain Team Deathmatch mode puts each player in charge of a small squad of soldiers, presenting the following strategic decision: do you upgrade your soldiers, or your own equipment?

If you’ve read other Mount & Blade reviews, you may be wondering why I haven’t harped on the graphics yet. Yes, the graphics engine is dated, and the characters don’t have as many polygons as we expect in 2011. But the game isn’t ugly – on the contrary, the distinct architecture and equipment of the various factions provide visual flair. As an added boon, the lower poly count means my computer can run massive 200 versus 200 army battles on the highest graphical settings without breaking a sweat.

When the dust kicked up by charging steeds settles, With Fire & Sword is an engaging and addictive game — just like its predecessors. Mount & Blade veterans may find With Fire & Sword offers little in the way of innovation, and may in fact be a step backward from the series’ first expansion, Warband, as it lacks certain features introduced therein. Gunpowder is the main new feature of With Fire & Sword, but free mods for Warband have offered boomsticks long before With Fire & Sword hit shelves.

While With Fire & Sword may not be worthwhile for Warband veterans, this standalone sequel will hook new players who don’t know what they’re missing.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/mount-blade-with-fire-and-sword-launch-trailer-demo-video/feed/0Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword Now Available for Pre-Order on Steamhttp://www.gamefront.com/mount-blade-with-fire-sword-now-available-for-pre-order-on-steam/
http://www.gamefront.com/mount-blade-with-fire-sword-now-available-for-pre-order-on-steam/#commentsFri, 29 Apr 2011 15:24:09 +0000Ron Whitakerhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=96606You can also grab the original game and expansion for cheap this weekend.

TaleWorlds and Paradox Interactive have announced that the newest installment of the Mount & Blade series is now available on Steam. The action RPG is based on the gameplay for the original Mount & Blade, but has a story based on the cult novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winning author Henry Sienkiewicz.

With Fire & Sword also contains 15 new multiplayer maps, one new multiplayer mode, fully customizable armies, multiple endings, and the option to play as a member of a faction or as a go-it-alone mercenary. It also introduces firearms to the series for the first time.

Steam is offering up Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword for $13.49 if you pre-order before the game launches on May 3rd. Also, as a bonus to get you interested this weekend, you can grab the original Mount & Blade and Mount & Blade: Warband with your pre-order. If you do, you get all three for $19.99.

If you enjoyed the original Mount & Blade as much as we did, you should really check this one out. In fact, we already played it and posted a preview. If you haven’t played any of the games in this series, you should go read it. You could also check out this trailer.

Paradox Interactive today announced that Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword has officially gone gold. This standalone sequel in the Mount & Blade series adds a highly anticipated, world-changing technology to the battlefield: gunpowder.

A setting based off the cult novel “With Fire and Sword” (1884) by Nobel- prize winner Henry Sienkiewicz

Check out the new Siege Trailer:

Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword is now available to preorder at several digital download portals for $14.99 and will release at all digital platforms on May 3, 2011. The retail release will follow shortly thereafter.

With the market flooded with dragons, wizards, and elves, we sometimes forget that it’s possible to have fun in a medieval setting without introducing fantasy elements. Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword is a stand-alone sequel to the action RPG that had us battling through the Middle Ages with naught but a trusty steed and human determination.

With Fire & Sword maintains the core elements of its predecessor, letting you play the role of a mercenary who can align himself with one of five warring factions as he grows his army, gains notoriety, and eventually becomes a ruler that lays siege to enemy cities. This time, the setting is the 17th Century, when western Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries waged war across the lands of Sweden, Muscovy, the Polish Republic, the Zaporozhian Army, and the Crimean Khanate. The alliances you forge feel more meaningful than picking between Generic Fantasy Name A and Generic Fantasy Name B because you know that these are real, historical cultures whose legacies live on today.

New to the series is the titular “fire”–gunpowder. Guns are generally one shot, one kill weapons, but with a reload time of roughly six seconds, they are far from overpowered. The trusty bow remains a viable option because, although an arrow deals a fraction of the damage of a bullet, the increased rate of fire keeps it competitive.

When you start the singleplayer campaign, you’re prompted to customize your mercenary’s appearance, then taken to an in-depth character creation process reminiscent of old tabletop RPGs. A variety of build options adds replay value to the singleplayer campaign by allowing you to create multiple characters with different specialties. And not all choices boil down to combat options–yes, many are skills that directly or indirectly aid in battle, but you can also create a character skilled at trading, diplomacy, or tracking.

After a brief tutorial sequence that acquaints you with combat mechanics, you’re directed to a nearby settlement for your first quest. But the beauty of this game‘s open world is that you are not confined to a linear plotline–you can pick and choose your quests. Don’t like delivery quests? No problem! You can tell the quest-giver that such petty matters are beneath you. You can be a merchant that amasses wealth; you can be a diplomat that forges alliances; you can be a warrior that grows an army–or you can be all of the above. Regardless of the choices you make, villages are looted, cities are besieged, and the war rages on around you.

Apart from the single-player campaign, a custom battle mode lets you practice your combat skills and test out different army compositions, and a multiplayer option (which was sadly unavailable in this preview version of With Fire & Sword) lets you take on human opponents in a variety of game modes.

For an indie game, With Fire & Sword looks good. The graphics can’t rival those of AAA shooters, but the execution of the artistic style makes it work–it’s not about how many polygons you have; it’s about how you use them. The UI is somewhat lackluster, and the dialogue could be improved, but at the end of the day, this game is fun, and I’m excited about the multiplayer.

Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword is due for release on PC this spring.